Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, says the
government will release its White Paper on the report submitted by the EndSARS
Judicial Panel of Inquiry on November 15, 2021.
The governor in a speech on Tuesday on the Lekki shootings
of October 20, 2020, said, “As an administration, are determined that the next
steps that will be taken in this process of coming to terms with the events of
October 2020, must bring closure to a painful episode in the history of our
state, with the release of the White Paper later today.”
A White Paper is an administrative medium for conveying the
decision or position of the government on the report of an administrative or judicial
enquiry.
Following the controversy that trailed the shootings of protesters on October 20, 2020, Sanwo-Olu had inaugurated the judicial panel to uncover the truth and the liars about the incident.
After one year of taking testimonies, receiving evidence and
awarding compensations, the eight-man Lagos EndSARS panel submitted a 309-page
report on Monday, November 15, 2021, with shocking revelations which indicted
members of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force.
In a leaked report, the Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel,
which has been hugely vilified and blackmailed in the last 14 days, described
the Lekki tollgate incident as a massacre in context, claiming that at least
nine persons were killed by security agents when they stormed the Lekki toll
gate on October 20, 2020, to disperse the defiant youths protesting against
police brutality and extrajudicial killings.
The panel listed 48 names as casualties out of which 22
protesters sustained gunshot injuries, while 15 others were assaulted by
soldiers and the police.
It listed the names of the deceased as Victor Sunday Ibanga,
Abuta Solomon, Jide, Olalekan Abideen Ashafa, Olamilekan Ajasa, Kolade Salami,
Folorunsho Olabisi, Kenechukwu Ugoh and Nathaniel Solomon. The report also
listed Abiodun Adesanya, Ifeanyi Nicholas Eji, Tola and Wisdom as “presumed
dead.”
It stated, “The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless
and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian
flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a ‘massacre’ in
context.”
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on
November 18, 2021, had told United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken,
who was recently on an official visit to Nigeria that the Federal Government
was waiting on Lagos State and other state governments to come up with their
conclusions.
However, days later, Minister of Information and Culture,
Lai Mohammed; and Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo;
rubbished the Lagos panel as illegal and its findings as “tales by moonlight”.
But speaking on Tuesday, Sanwo-Olu said his administration
has “sincere commitment to uncovering the truth” about the Lekki shootings of
October 20, 2020, adding that “no member of the panel can claim that the state
government made any attempt to influence them in any way throughout the
duration of its sitting.”
“While I commend the panel for undertaking its task to the
best of its abilities, it is however regrettable that the panel’s work and the
leakage of an unauthorized version of the report have generated much tension.
Sadly, a deep wound has been reopened.
“The heated exchanges among various shades of opinion on the
report have unfortunately put us all at the risk of missing the larger picture;
the fact that what we all seek in common is a land in which we are all safe and
secure, law enforcement agents are trusted, and justice is guaranteed for all.
“As I have stated earlier, we have no intention to engage in
histrionics or further inflame passion on a matter that has generated intense
interest and controversy nationally and internationally. Our decisions and
actions will be based entirely on the law, the weight of evidence and an
unblemished respect for the truth,” the governor added.
He also invited some known faces of the EndSARS protest to a
peace walk for “the healing of Lagos”.
Specifically, the governor invited Folarin Falana (Falz),
Debo Adebayo (Mr. Marcaroni), Dele Farotimi, Temitope Majekodunmi, Segun
Awosanya (Segalinks), Adedotun (Just Detoun), Seun Kuti, Commissioner of
Police, Hakeem Odumosu and Commander of Rapid Response Squad (RRS), CSP Yinka
Egbeyemi and others to join him in the “historic march for our dear Lagos.”
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